A Southern California man who acted as an unregistered agent for China while working as a campaign advisor for a local politician was sentenced Monday in downtown Los Angeles to four years behind bars.
Yaoning “Mike” Sun, 65, of Chino Hills, pleaded guilty in October 2025 to a federal count of acting as an illegal agent of a foreign power.
Sun worked as the treasurer for an unnamed Southern California politician who was running for city council of a city in the area — not named in court documents — four years ago. The candidate was elected to the council in November 2022.
Sources familiar with the case say the unnamed politician is Arcadia’s now-Mayor Eileen Wang.
Wang did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.
Sun was also accused of conspiring with another man, John Chen, also known as Chen Jun, who was sentenced to federal prison in 2024 for acting as an illegal agent of China and plotting to target United States-based practitioners of Falun Gong, a spiritual practice banned in China, federal prosecutors said.
Sun acknowledged in his plea agreement filed in Los Angeles federal court that at the direction and control of Chinese government officials, he coordinated with individuals in the United States to advance the interests of the People’s Republic of China by, among other things, promoting pro-Beijing propaganda.
Federal prosecutors said that in February 2023, Sun drafted a report for Chinese officials to solicit additional money for his work in the Southland. The report summarized his personal experience, including past service in the PRC.
In the report, according to Sun’s plea agreement, the defendant stated that he had worked in the United States to lead “delegations of U.S. dignitaries and cultural workers to China” and, during the 2022 midterms, helped the candidate thought to be Wang win the election for a city council seat in Arcadia. In the report, Sun called the candidate a “new political star,” prosecutors said.
Before acting on behalf of China, Sun admitted, he did not notify the U.S. attorney general, as required by law, that he was acting in the U.S. as an agent of the communist country, according to the plea agreement.
During the city council campaign, Sun communicated with Chen regarding his efforts to get the Arcadia politician elected. Chen discussed with Chinese government officials how he could “influence” local politicians in the United States, particularly on the issue of Taiwan, according to the complaint.
In November 2022, shortly after the politician was elected to the city council, Chen instructed Sun to prepare a report on the election that was sent to Chinese government officials, who responded positively and expressed thanks, according to the complaint affidavit.
Chen also sent a message to the then-newly elected politician stating that the politician was “doing a good job, I hope you can continue the good work, make Chinese people proud,” the affidavit states.
About a month after the election, Chen arranged a lunch at a Rowland Heights restaurant with Sun and others, a gathering that Chen described to a PRC official as a “core member lunch,” the affidavit says.
Court papers state Chen subsequently described the lunch as “successful” as participants agreed to establish a “U.S.-China Friendship Promotional Association.”
“This case highlights the breadth of the PRC’s relentless intelligence and malign influence activities targeting the United States,” according to a statement from Akil Davis, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles bureau, when charges were brought against Sun.